MY ACCOUNT
Arsenal face another acid test of their Premier League title pretensions when Liverpool look to leave their mark at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners held on to top spot with a thrilling 3-1 North London Derby win over Tottenham last Saturday — but manager Mikel Arteta was quick to stress his side has done nothing yet.
After last weekend’s 3-3 home draw with Brighton, Jurgen Klopp changed Liverpool’s usual formation from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 and saw his players turn in a secure defensive showing against Rangers in midweek.
The German could keep faith with a system that enables him to cram four fabulous forwards into the line-up when they go in search of their fourth straight away win against Arsenal.
Team news
Arteta made eight changes for the Gunners’ 3-0 Europa League victory over Bodo/Glimt in midweek, with Oleksandr Zinchenko rested as a precaution following his recent calf injury.
The Ukraine international has been preferred over Kieran Tierney — who played 70 minutes against the Norwegian champions — at left-back since his arrival and it would be a surprise if he was not Arteta’s first choice there on Sunday.
Gabriel Martinelli, Granit Xhaka and Gabriel were the three players to retain their places in the starting XI on Thursday and will be rejoined by the rest of the starting players from the Spurs win.
Only midfielders Mohamed Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe are out of action at the moment with muscle injuries.
Liverpool are without the services of midfielders Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arthur Melo and Curtis Jones, although the latter is the closest to a return after rejoining training this week.
Andy Robertson is “running a lot”, according to Klopp, and “looks like he’s close”, but understudy Kostas Tsimikas is expected to retain his place after a solid run of games in the Scotsman’s absence.
Ibrahima Konate was named in a matchday squad for the first time this season against Rangers on Tuesday after suffering a knee injury in July, but the Reds boss is not expected to make any changes to his backline.
There is a question over which four attackers will be let loose from the start in Klopp’s 4-2-3-1 system, with Roberto Firmino pushing for a role after Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota got the nod in midweek.
The stats
If Klopp subscribes to the ‘horses for courses’ theory, he will go with Firmino.
The Brazilian has scored more Premier League goals against Arsenal (nine) than he has versus any other opponent.
The Premier League fixture that has recorded the most goals is Liverpool versus Arsenal, which has seen a total of 173 scored.
Liverpool have had the better of the clashes with 24 wins out of the 59 contests, while scoring 101 of the 173 goals.
Arsenal are on a run of 13 consecutive Premier League matches without a clean sheet against Liverpool, conceding 39 goals in those games.
Liverpool, though, have conceded the first goal in nine of their last 11 Premier League games — but have only gone on to lose one of those (1-2 vs Manchester United in August).
Prediction
Arsenal do not lack belief ahead of this fixture and are facing a Liverpool side that have underperformed this season.
But while Klopp has struggled to turn the tide around so far this term, he may have hit upon the right formula to stop the Gunners on Sunday by tweaking the balance of his side.
His deployment of four forwards is likely to peg Arsenal’s wide players back to a certain extent, as their full-backs are tested by dangerous attackers.
Granit Xhaka, so effective against Spurs, will also have his hands full trying to stop Thiago Alcantara from dictating the game.
The Reds have yet to win away from home this season — but it might not take much to spark a run like last season’s sequence of seven victories from their last eight road trips.
Arsenal have lost their last three at home to Klopp’s men without even scoring a goal, suggesting that a Liverpool triumph could be on the cards.
